A variety of industries, including the pharmaceutical and microelectronics industries require purified water that meets predetermined purification requirements for their manufacturing processes. Processes typically used to treat municipal water to obtain purified water are generally resource and capital intensive and generally require a number of different treatment stages. Municipal water may be water high in mineral content, also known as hard water. Hard water, if not treated properly, may cause build-up of mineral deposits, also known as scale, in piping and equipment, and cause corrosion.
Scale has the potential to damage equipment and inhibit flow. As a result, one standard water treatment stage relates to the softening of hard water to reduce the concentration of calcium, magnesium, and/or other metal cations. Water provided by municipal water supply may also be treated by adding disinfectants such as free chlorine, chloramine and ozone in order to deactivate microorganisms present in the water to obtain disinfected water.
On the other hand, the above-mentioned disinfectants are strong oxidizing agents which may have the potential of inflicting damage to piping and equipment used in pharmaceutical and microelectronics industries by causing oxidation, e.g., of metals, which may also be referred to as corrosion, and/or of membranes and resins. For these reasons it may be necessary to remove these disinfectants.